1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to communication systems and in particular to bridging talkgroups in communication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the increase in the number of public safety personnel involved in addressing major incidents, there is a need to “conference in” talk groups on different networks (dispatch to dispatch). For example, immigration officers may need to communicate with local police during an incident. Firefighters and police officers may also need to coordinate their efforts during an incident. These public safety personnel currently are unable to communicate with each other on separate private or public radio systems. Also, during incidents that require expert or high level official advice, public safety personnel may also need to add individuals who use public cellular telephony communications to their private talk systems (dispatch to cell). Historically, bridging public and private talk groups has not been feasible, because the effort to enable this at the network infrastructure level is quite high. There is a need for bridging talk groups to be accomplished on an ad hoc basis without operator intervention. Additionally, the ability to generate a record in a dispatch center recording the combined dialog of multiple talk groups would be highly beneficial.
Accordingly, there is a need for a communication system and method for facilitating the bridging of multiple talk groups from different systems as well as private/public systems.